If they form 2 super conferences with two few schools and states, Congress will step in. Remember states like California have more then fans of UCLA, and USC, and a lot of representatives, the same goes for Texas, the other schools in those states aren't going to just sit by while other schools get money and they don't.
There will come a day of reckoning for the Networks, and the Schools of the power 2 unless they have enough schools in the fold.
Won't even need Congress to step in. Once the networks realize that actual revenues and ratings are down 50% from their projections because most of the rooting public has lost interest, they themselves will force the reckoning.
The idea that by
contracting the sport, the P2 schools can eat bigger slices of the same-sized pie is McKinsey-level idiocy.
This applies to both football and basketball. They will flush all that March Madness money down the toilet before they know what hit them.
Here is a history lesson:
In the early days of the NFL, the Mara and Halas families realized that their teams could dominate the league forever; but that it was in
everyone's best interest--including their own--to have some level of parity.
And the league was looking to
expand--always--and still today is looking for new markets to put teams and generate revenue.
That league has likely earned over a trillion in revenue since its formation, or will hit that number soon. The business of the NFL has been nothing but a massive success, since forever.
But the academic choads that run P2 schools--abetted by network suits who can't see a week ahead of their own faces--are doing the exact opposite.
What they should be doing:
Invite even more schools to play football at the FBS level, and figure out a way to make it affordable for everyone. Maybe even invite Canadian schools.
Expand the sport, the fanbase, and everyone's revenue.
I only wish I could be there in 10 or 15 years to see the faces on the Florida State trustees--and their private equity masters--when they get told that their media contracts will be renewing for 50% of the expiring value. I wonder whom they will sue then?
